Brazil’s Ribeiro ‘Not Worried’ by U.S. Orange Juice Tests
Brazilian Agriculture Minister Jorge Mendes Ribeiro Filho said he is “not worried” about U.S. testing of orange juice imports for fungicide.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has started testing juice imports including shipments from Brazil, the world’s biggest producer, for amounts of the fungicide carbendazim that exceed import standards. The FDA had collected 45 samples since Jan. 4, and 12 have been cleared for entry, the administration said last week.
“I can’t judge the U.S. but I believe in the Brazilian product,” Ribeiro said today in London, when asked if he viewed the U.S. action as unreasonable. The minister said he’s “not worried” about the FDA’s tests of imported orange juice.
Orange-juice futures surged to a record for a second session yesterday on mounting concern that the tests, combined with citrus-greening disease in Texas, may reduce U.S. supplies. Futures in New York reached an all-time high of $2.2695 a pound, before retreating today to $2.133 by 9:37 a.m.
The amounts of carbendazim concerned are within acceptable rates as set by the World Trade Organization and U.S. criteria are below the WTO standard, Ribeiro said. The U.S. allows 10 parts per billion of carbendazim in orange juice. The European Union allows 200 parts per billion.
Testing may continue for as long as six months, Siobhan DeLancey, an FDA spokeswoman, said in an interview last week. The agency began holding imported orange juice after trace levels of the chemical were detected in products from Brazil.
PepsiCo. Inc. also found traces of the fungicide in its Tropicana orange juice at concentrations below levels that the U.S. says raises concern, according to a statement from the Purchase, New York-based company.
To contact the reporter on this story: Tony C. Dreibus in London at tdreibus@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Claudia Carpenter at ccarpenter2@bloomberg.net
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